We are addicted to federal pork

Published: Thursday, February 16, 2006 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, February 16, 2006 at 12:00 a.m.

We were intrigued by a recent push from Sumter County commissioners Mike Francis and Dick Hoffman to reject federal funding for projects within the county.
To recap, the board had received a routine annual letter from U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, asking counties in her district to identify needs for which she could help obtain federal dollars.
Francis and Hoffman urged the board to tell Brown-Waite, and by extension the rest of Washington, thanks, but no thanks. Federal money targeted at local projects runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution, they argued, and Sumter County should stake a claim for local control and in a larger sense, for federalism.
"I think it's time that states and local jurisdictions take responsibility and tell their congressman that they do not want federal money for pork projects," Hoffman told the Ocala Star-Banner. "I don't think people in Montana would want to spend money on a park in Sumter County. They would not be interested, nor would I expect them to."
Francis, in the article, cited the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Ketchikan, Alaska, the nearly $230 million span designed to serve 50 people on a remote island. Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens threatened to resign if the bridge and another of almost equal cost didn't remain in the $284 billion transportation bill, which contained more than 6,000 pork projects and which President Bush labeled a "jobs" bill in signing it. (The bridges were pulled, but the money was still shipped to Alaska.)
The commissioners' comments brought to mind one of Congress' spectacularly pork-stuffed budgets from three years ago. Federal lawmakers tossed money at everything from a bilingual tour at the National Cowgirls Hall of Fame in Texas AND funding for the professional baseball and rock n' roll halls of fame, to an arena to host the National Peanut Festival in Alabama and a "McGruff the Crime Dog" campaign.
The measure prompted the unforgettable line by Arizona Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, who said he had thought about nominating some of his House colleagues to the "Pork Hall of Fame" but didn't because "I am afraid that they would fund it."
Commissioners Francis and Hoffman have apparently caught a whiff of the mood in the nation's capital - and, we suspect, the heartland.
Last month Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma vowed they would fight the insertion of pet pork projects - branded "earmarks" in D.C.-speak - on the Senate floor. The pair stated recently that such moves, which come from both parties and tend to enhance the influence of lobbyists, have nearly quadrupled since Republicans seized control of Congress in 1994. Back then, the Associated Press reports, there were 4,126 earmarks; in 2005, the number was 15,268.
Last month, John Fund, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com, noted that James Madison once argued that those Founding Fathers who wanted federal money spent on building "county roads" should amend the Constitution to say so. Fund added, "Not able or willing to go through that arduous process, we have instead so undermined our founding document by degrees that we now find ourselves mired in earmarks and in peril of squandering our birthright for a mess of pottage and pork."
Now, the problem is that one congressional member's pork is another's constituent service.
In that famous 2003 budget package that Rep. Flake heaped scorn on, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, noted that some of those billions funded a maintenance facility for SunTran, Ocala's bus service, helped Ocala's hospitals treat Medicare recipients, paid for teacher training and an information technology center at Central Florida Community College and increased care for veterans at the Veterans Administration hospital in Gainesville.
Indeed, federal funding helps local communities here and nationwide with a variety of efforts, including adding police, improving infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods and educating our children.
For better or worse, federal money has become addictive. And we can't help but wonder whether projects it helps pay for would get done without out, or how high our local taxes would be.
Francis and Hoffman lost their principled bid. Sumter County commissioners voted 3-2 to write Brown-Waite and request money for a storm shelter and drainage improvements. Commissioner Jim Roberts, for one, said he voted against their plan because if Sumter County doesn't get that money, one of the other 434 congressional districts would.
That reality, for the time being, trumps the "just say no" philosophy offered by Francis and Hoffman. Still, they raise an interesting and valid point about the size of our federal government and whether we can continue to sustain bridges, or anything else, to anywhere but here.

We were intrigued by a recent push from Sumter County commissioners Mike Francis and Dick Hoffman to reject federal funding for projects within the county.<BR>
To recap, the board had received a routine annual letter from U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, asking counties in her district to identify needs for which she could help obtain federal dollars.<BR>
Francis and Hoffman urged the board to tell Brown-Waite, and by extension the rest of Washington, thanks, but no thanks. Federal money targeted at local projects runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution, they argued, and Sumter County should stake a claim for local control and in a larger sense, for federalism.<BR>
"I think it's time that states and local jurisdictions take responsibility and tell their congressman that they do not want federal money for pork projects," Hoffman told the Ocala Star-Banner. "I don't think people in Montana would want to spend money on a park in Sumter County. They would not be interested, nor would I expect them to."<BR>
Francis, in the article, cited the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Ketchikan, Alaska, the nearly $230 million span designed to serve 50 people on a remote island. Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens threatened to resign if the bridge and another of almost equal cost didn't remain in the $284 billion transportation bill, which contained more than 6,000 pork projects and which President Bush labeled a "jobs" bill in signing it. (The bridges were pulled, but the money was still shipped to Alaska.)<BR>
The commissioners' comments brought to mind one of Congress' spectacularly pork-stuffed budgets from three years ago. Federal lawmakers tossed money at everything from a bilingual tour at the National Cowgirls Hall of Fame in Texas AND funding for the professional baseball and rock n' roll halls of fame, to an arena to host the National Peanut Festival in Alabama and a "McGruff the Crime Dog" campaign.<BR>
The measure prompted the unforgettable line by Arizona Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, who said he had thought about nominating some of his House colleagues to the "Pork Hall of Fame" but didn't because "I am afraid that they would fund it."<BR>
Commissioners Francis and Hoffman have apparently caught a whiff of the mood in the nation's capital - and, we suspect, the heartland.<BR>
Last month Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma vowed they would fight the insertion of pet pork projects - branded "earmarks" in D.C.-speak - on the Senate floor. The pair stated recently that such moves, which come from both parties and tend to enhance the influence of lobbyists, have nearly quadrupled since Republicans seized control of Congress in 1994. Back then, the Associated Press reports, there were 4,126 earmarks; in 2005, the number was 15,268.<BR>
Last month, John Fund, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com, noted that James Madison once argued that those Founding Fathers who wanted federal money spent on building "county roads" should amend the Constitution to say so. Fund added, "Not able or willing to go through that arduous process, we have instead so undermined our founding document by degrees that we now find ourselves mired in earmarks and in peril of squandering our birthright for a mess of pottage and pork."<BR>
Now, the problem is that one congressional member's pork is another's constituent service.<BR>
In that famous 2003 budget package that Rep. Flake heaped scorn on, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, noted that some of those billions funded a maintenance facility for SunTran, Ocala's bus service, helped Ocala's hospitals treat Medicare recipients, paid for teacher training and an information technology center at Central Florida Community College and increased care for veterans at the Veterans Administration hospital in Gainesville.<BR>
Indeed, federal funding helps local communities here and nationwide with a variety of efforts, including adding police, improving infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods and educating our children.<BR>
For better or worse, federal money has become addictive. And we can't help but wonder whether projects it helps pay for would get done without out, or how high our local taxes would be.<BR>
Francis and Hoffman lost their principled bid. Sumter County commissioners voted 3-2 to write Brown-Waite and request money for a storm shelter and drainage improvements. Commissioner Jim Roberts, for one, said he voted against their plan because if Sumter County doesn't get that money, one of the other 434 congressional districts would.<BR>
That reality, for the time being, trumps the "just say no" philosophy offered by Francis and Hoffman. Still, they raise an interesting and valid point about the size of our federal government and whether we can continue to sustain bridges, or anything else, to anywhere but here.<BR>